(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an automated toe adjustment apparatus using a floating mechanism. More particularly, it relates to an automated toe adjustment apparatus using a floating mechanism that absorbs a shock between a power nut runner and a robot.
(b) Background Art
Generally, there is a wheel alignment process in a vehicle inspection line, in which a worker aligns a tire through toe, camber, and caster adjustments using a spanner and a torque wrench.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, in a toe adjustment method of the wheel alignment process, a stop nut 2 of a tie-rod assembly 1 is turned and loosened, and then an adjusting bolt 3 is turned to adjust a toe of a wheel. After the toe adjustment is completed, the stop nut 2 is turned to be fastened, thereby maintaining the state where the toe is adjusted. Unexplained reference numeral 5 indicates a tie-rod end.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the wheel alignment process, a tire is forcibly rotated by a dynamo 4. In this case, a vehicle is not shaken in the direction of the body width L because the vehicle is fixed by a centering device, while the vehicle is shaken in the directions of the body length T and the body height H.
Here, when the toe adjustment is manually performed, a worker may verify the position of the tie-rod with the naked eye, and may flexibly deal with shaking of a vehicle by moving a spanner and a torque wrench according to the shaking of the vehicle. However, when the toe adjustment is automated using vision machine, a robot, and a power nut runner, there is a limitation in that when the position of a stop nut and an adjusting bolt of a tie-rod assembly is verified through the vision machine, and then, as described in FIG. 3, the robot tries to engage a toe adjustment unit 10a of the power nut runner 10 with the central shaft of the tie-rod assembly 1 it is difficult to engage the power nut runner 10 with the stop nut 2 and the adjusting bolt 3. This is because the central shaft of the power nut runner 10 and the central shaft of the tie-rod assembly 1 are not aligned with each other due to the shaking of the vehicle in the H and T directions,
Also, even when the power nut runner 10 engages with the stop nut 2 and the adjusting bolt 3, the shaking of the vehicle may be transferred to the power nut runner 10 and the robot thereby giving a shock to a gear and a motor of the power nut runner 10, and a drive of the robot. Accordingly, a malfunction may occur in the power nut runner 10 and the robot, causing reduction of the lifespan of the automated toe adjustment apparatus.
Furthermore, the above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.